Reaper's Lullaby

Nora: Between Life and Death

"People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it is a friend."
– Jim Morrison

Nora felt weird asking random strangers about buying dope. Once or twice she tried to muster up the courage but chickened out at the last second. This was definitely a job for Lucas. She glanced around the crowded, smoky room for him, but all of the sudden he wasn't there.

At first she wasn't worried. The thing with the guitar was obviously bothering him, and he tended to withdraw from her when things were bad inside his head. But her feelings of unease grew worse the longer she waited, until she started to panic. Something was wrong. He would have at least checked in with her by now.

Nora abandoned her dope search and raced through every chaotic room downstairs, asking everyone who would listen if they'd seen Lucas. Her voice was mostly drowned out by the music and sounds of the party. Lucas obviously wanted to be alone, and he was most likely shooting up without her, and there was only one place at a party where you could get some privacy.

The downstairs bathroom was occupied by a half dressed couple who cussed at Nora when she barged in. That left the upstairs. She took off and found the line for the upstairs bathroom snaking down the staircase. Indignant scoffs, drunken curses and a couple elbows in the spine followed her as she shoved her way up through the crowd, following the line of partiers to a closed door. Some girl in a vampire costume was pounding on it, cursing drunkenly.

"Come on! Get the fuck out! I gotta pee!" she shouted.

Nora pushed her out of the way and slammed her body against the door. Lucas was in there. She just knew it.

The drunk girl grabbed her arm. "Look, bitch-"

"Shut up!" Nora shouted. "My boyfriend's in there!"

"Do I look like I give a fuck?" The girl slurred, but Nora barely heard her.

"Lucas! Lucas, can you hear me?"

Somehow, she knew the worst had happened.

"Someone help me bust this door!" she shouted desperately.

Every pair of eyes in the line stared blankly back at her, as if she'd been speaking another language.

"HELP ME YOU ASSHOLES!" Nora screamed, rushing at them, and she must have looked crazy enough to be taken seriously.

Two college guys joined her in shoving their weight against the door. The lock popped immediately, but there was a new problem. Something was stuck behind the door, holding it in place. No, not something. Someone.

"LUCAS!"

Nora threw herself against the door again with all her strength, but it didn't budge.

"Push him out of the way!" she cried hysterically.

It took a few tries, but soon the force of their combined weight against the door pushed the lifeless body forward enough so that Nora was able to slip through.

Sure enough, it was Lucas. He was laying there pale and lifeless, the band still tied around his skinny arm and a used syringe next to his open hand.

"Lucas? Can you hear me?" Nora asked, sinking to her knees beside him. "Come on, wake up. It's time to go."

The rising and falling of his chest assured her he wasn't dead yet, but he showed no other signs of life. Nora patted his face, increasing the intensity until she was slapping him.

"LUCAS! Wake up!"

Gasping through sobs, Nora took him by the shoulders and shook him violently, but his head just rolled lifelessly to the side. On TV somewhere she had seen someone throwing water on an overdose victim, and she turned on the faucet and filled her cupped hands, opening them over Lucas's face. Nothing. And that was when she noticed that his breathing sounded weird, like something was stuck in his throat.